Funding for replacing artificial turf fields cut

A proposed cut of 90 per cent in the Vancouver park board's capital plan for the next four years for replacing artificial turf fields means between seven and nine of the fields won't get their needed upgrades, according to the head of the Vancouver Sports Field Federation.

At its meeting last week, the park board proposed to significantly reduce funding for field and diamond projects in the next capital plan, according to Craig Woods.

“We were surprised and disappointed about the initial funding allocation,” said Woods.

The park board had allocated $500,000 for renewals of artificial turf fields for 2023 to 2026, compared with $6.2 million for 2019 to 2022, a 90 per cent drop, Woods said. And there was a 40 per cent cut in the budget, to $3.3 million from $5.4 million for the construction of new fields and diamonds. The total budget was cut by 67 per cent.

Woods also noted almost $10 million that had been allocated in the last capital plan for new construction hadn't been used and it wasn't carried forward.

He urged federation members, which includes users of the fields, such as baseball and soccer teams, to contact park board commissioners to urge them to restore the funding, and the board was flooded with at least 100 emails.

The board has since requested $7.7 million from Vancouver city council for sports fields, and council will debate the motion and vote on it at its Wednesday meeting on the capital plan.

Woods said there are seven artificial turf fields that are overdue for replacement, at the cost of more than $1 million each, and another two that will need replacing within the next four years.

And “grass fields and diamonds need renewal too,” said Woods.

The $7.7 million will not be enough to carry out needed renewals but “it's definitely better than nothing,” he said.

He also said council still has to approve the request.